Gabrielle Revlock, creator of Sex Tape, which streamed at FringeArts last year, has come up with a new show for our troubled times which focuses on body image, touch, and what our cultural expectations are of what a wedding should be.
Utilising official wedding photography tropes, audience participation, and body movement, Revlock uses her choreography to create a short piece (half an hour) about true love, fantasy, and connection.
This is a story told with images and movement, assembled with mischief and perception. The common images we see in commercial photography are assessed, deconstructed, and replicated on stage.
Revlock looks at what is seen to be designed and developed as the way marriage should be, whether in straight or gay couplings. The male as protector, the classic portrait, the “Instagram asthetic”.
No longer private, these works of art exist to be shared. Revlock’s project puts herself into the portraits, indicating what “romantic love” looks like. Is this nuptial bliss or nuptial blitz?
What if “touch” becomes forbidden, and people become afraid? Use imagination instead, and “do what the photographer tells you to do”. Funny, yet touching; playful, yet mocking. This uses the sense of what the body can do.
There are segments which capture one brief second of time, and make us think. The happy brides in photos whose glances over the shoulders tell the story of one moment, but not of the life of a marriage.
Elsewhere, a couple from the audience hug and dance. Revlock runs a clip from the Disney Snow White, the sweet young thing yearning for her prince. This is a show for strangers, soulmates, sweethearts and singles alike.
Nuptial Blitz streamed live in September 2021 alongside live performances at the Philly Fringe as part of Cannonball Festival.
My grateful thanks to Gabrielle Revlock for allowing me to view a recording of this show for review.